Small Business Marketing to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy

The most powerful, simplest and inexpensive marketing strategies to bring your business a flood of sales and waves of profits is the joint venture (JV) or strategic alliance. Essentially, you are leveraging the relationships another business has with their customers to build your own business. They work as well in both online and off line and can be very simple or very complex, multi-million dollar deals.

Your starting point is to identify non-competing businesses that have a client profile similar to yours. Approach the owner with a letter or phone call and let them you have a unique idea that can generate a lot of new clients. There are a couple of things you can try.

One is to offer to pay for a mailing to their clients recommending your service or product. Include a special offer, with a deadline for redeeming, that is unique to their clients. I’ve found that creating a coupon on which the offer is printed improves response.

Some businesses you approach will express concern about the confidentiality of their list. If so, offer to have them send it directly to their list themselves. You will want to write the sales letter or coupon yourself but allow them final approval on the copy.

Another tactic is to create a mailer on which you both print an offer and mail it to your combined client lists and share all expenses equally.

I believe it is very important to conduct due diligence and to take the time to get to know your potential business partner as well as the quality of their products and services. If you plan on recommending somebody to your valued clients, be sure they will meet your standards and expectations.

Typically, only about three of ten business owners will wish to pursue a joint venture so you’ll need to make several calls but it will be well worth the effort. In my opinion, the JV is about the most powerful marketing strategy any business, large or or small can implement.

Up your profits in a down economy – How to open a cash windfall

Have you ever “mined” your client list? If you have a list of satisfied clients, an email list, a list of vendors and a personal network, you are probably sitting on a gold mine from which you can “extract” a cash windfall.

In my previous couple of posts, I referenced the importance of regularly “touching” your clients. If you’ve been doing that (or even if you haven’t done so regularly), you’ve been building and cultivating a relationship with them since they have been buying from you. You can leverage this relationship for immediate cash.

How do you go about doing this? Sit down in front of your computer and write a letter to your best clients and tell them about your situation, that you need to raise cash to help build and improve your company. In return for their support, you will give them special treatment, special discounts and bonuses just for them.

This is a very powerful technique that leverages one of your most important Hidden Marketing Assets, the relationships you have cultivated over the years. Will it work for you? Only testing will tell but the odds are in your favor because your clients trust you and people enjoy helping people they trust and have given them good service

Now, if you really want to leverage this concept, start thinking about whom you can create a joint venture with and make a special offer to their client and prospect list. I’m not talking about the BS internet joint ventures where a guru gets other gurus to promote their latest and greatest products, without seeing it or having any idea of what it does. You know what I mean. You get the same email from twenty people saying their “good friend” has the most amazing money making system in the world

I’m talking about a genuine relationship with a business owner you know and trust. Somebody who has the same beliefs about quality and service that you do. I’ll go more into structuring joint ventures in another post but start thinking of how you can approach clients and prospects with a very special offer.